and counting
35
3.0
- idiom
:
y subiendo
- We have now reached 100 items and counting.
- years and counting
I did not see eight seasons and two Psych movies and counting.
- I did not see eight seasons and two Psych movies and counting.
Examples
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Four minutes and counting.
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The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have a combined tab of almost $3 trillion and counting.
Academic text (2010) -
- 40 years and counting.
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You could be looking at 20 years and counting.
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Coming up on 90 seconds and counting.
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We now have T minus seven minutes and counting.
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I consider the number of known planets to be well over 500 and counting.
Blog text (30) -
It's 76 hours and counting.
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Two minutes and counting.
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So far, the Rolling Jubilee has raised $198,428 and counting, which will abolish $3,973,386 of debt.
Blog text (7)
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is transparently built from 'and' (addition/continuation) plus 'counting' (the ongoing action of tallying): together they signal that the stated number is still being tallied and may increase. This composition follows a straightforward semantic logic present in many languages, so a B1 learner who knows both words can readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
And counting comes from the simple image of someone who is still counting numbers out loud, so the total is 'not finished'. That's why we use it after a number to show the total is 'still increasing'.